Over 3000 Migrants Died To Reach Spain By Sea In 2025

More than 3,000 people lost their lives attempting to reach Spain by sea in 2025, according to a new report from the NGO Caminando Fronteras, marking a significant drop compared with the previous year.

Between January and December 15, 2025, 3,090 people drowned, including 192 women and 437 children. The victims came from 30 countries, primarily West and North Africa, as well as Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, and Egypt.

Despite the decline in deaths, activists cautioned that the journeys had not become safer. They argued that tighter border controls were forcing migrants onto more dangerous routes.

The report highlighted that the Atlantic crossing from North Africa to the Canary Islands remained the deadliest, claiming 1,906 lives this year. This journey can take up to 12 days at sea. Another hazardous route from Algeria to the Balearic Islands resulted in 1,037 deaths.

Caminando Fronteras also noted the emergence of a new route from Guinea to the Canary Islands, reflecting the growing risks faced by migrants seeking to reach Spain.

The report criticised a global trend toward harder migration policies, particularly those promoted by the United States, which it said have reshaped global mobility. According to the NGO, US-led deportation measures have externalized expulsions, in some cases leaving migrants in detention, legal limbo, or even on US military bases abroad.

The organisation pointed out similar measures elsewhere, including the UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda—halted by the British Supreme Court—and Italy’s creation of detention centres in Albania.

Overall, the report concluded that such policies are consolidating “a transnational system in which mobility is managed through institutional violence and the denial of basic guarantees.”